Fortec Motorsport’s championship leader Dean Smith (Wolverhampton) will start from pole position for round 13 of the 2007 Formula Renault UK with Michelin Championship at Snetterton on Sunday, 29th July. His team-mate and chief title rival Duncan Tappy (West Ewell), second in the first qualifying session, claimed pole for round 14 during the afternoon’s 20-minute qualifying.
In scorching conditions for session one, Smith progressively lowered his lap times as challengers emerged, setting the pole time of 1min 04.741s (108.54mph) on his eighth lap. Tappy was second for much of the session and set his best time on his final flying lap, a mere 0.032s slower than Smith. AKA Cobra’s Adam Christodoulou (Lichfield), aiming to regain third overall in the championship, starts third ahead of his cousin Riki Christodoulou (Sutton Coldfield) of Fortec Motorsport.
Manor Competition’s Alexander Sims (Peterborough) and Apotex Scorpio Motorsport’s Will Bratt (Banbury), both race winners in 2007, complete row three, with Graduate Cup pair Richard Singleton (Conwy) of RS Racing and Manor’s Kris Loane (Kesh) on row four. Eucatex’s Adriano Buzaid (Oxford) and Eurotek Motorsport’s Jordan Oakes (Hopton), at his home circuit, round out the top 10.
Qualifying for round 14 saw cooler conditions slow the lap times but the competition for pole position was no less intense. This time it was Tappy who gained the upper hand early on and set his best time on lap seven of 1min 04.833s (108.38mph). Once again, Adam Christodoulou edged out Riki Christodoulou in second and third, with Smith in fourth.
Bratt and Sims reverse places in fifth and sixth respectively, ahead of Singleton in seventh. AKA Cobra duo Chris Holmes (Ilkley) and Jeremy Metcalfe (Fleet), who performed below par earlier in the day, climbed into the top 10 ahead of Oakes.
Commenting on the day, round 13 pole-sitter Dean Smith said: “The first session was really good and the car felt great. I didn’t make any changes to the set-up but the car felt completely different this afternoon and now I’ve got a lot of work to do to get through. I don’t think I’ll have any problem overtaking though so should still get a good result. ”
Duncan Tappy, on pole for round 14, added: “This is what the whole team works towards so I’m delighted. I’m trying to win a championship and it’s hard to do that from the second or third row so this is really important. Now I need to get off to a perfect start because Dean is very good at coming through the traffic. ”
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